Oblivion Episode 5 - Shake, Rattle, and Roll Over the Edge
by Gabriel Seraph
Summary: This story is inspired by Organization XIII. Great liberties have been taken with names, places, etc. in order to create as original a story as possible. This week, all of California will be participating in a mass earthquake drill. Therefore, Ansem plans to order his head of security, Alexis Terra, to make an actual earthquake at that very moment. AU, with some OC's.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is the fifth part in my _Oblivion_ series, and if you don't read parts one through four ("The New Kid," "Both Sides of the Story," "Everybody Hates Windmills," and "Frozen Pride") first, you may not understand certain aspects of the story. So, please read the stories in order. Enjoy!

Episode 5 - "Shake, Rattle, and Roll Over the Edge"

Chapter 1

-October 22-

Sunday evening, six o'clock. The sun, barely visible through the lingering clouds left behind by Vexen's killer ice storm (which had caused damage in the millions all over the place, but no casualties aside from one elderly gentleman who was in SF General with minor spinal damage due to a slip on the icy sidewalk. Thankfully, he was expected to make a full recovery) was setting, almost morosely, as the frigid weekend entered its final hours.

Tim and Axel Nemo were arguing over which show they would watch on the living room TV that night - _The Walking Dead_ (which Axel wanted), or _Dexter_ (Tim's choice.)

Rocky, meanwhile, had quietly pilfered Axel's laptop so he could finally get to see the latest _Victorious_ episode, which he hadn't been able to watch as a result of the move.

Enzo Lessico quit reading his Latin-English dictionary, as he had become extremely irritated by the sounds of his wife sharpening her knives in the kitchen. Rather than throw the book across the room in his anger, he simply carried it up the stairs, imagined that Lara thought she'd just cut her hand, listened to the yelp of surprise and pain, then put on noise-canceling headphones as he opened the dictionary once again, to continue his long process of memorization while Lara tried to decide what she should do about the "injury."

The Claymore family sat down to a delicious dinner of bouillabaisse (although Xion, who was allergic to shellfish, simply ate an equally delicious, if much less filling, _salade niçoise_.)

Marley Flowers was sitting in the living room of the third townhouse, looking for an article on breeding black roses, when a tall, silver-haired figure unexpectedly walked through the wall right in front of her. She dropped her Nemo Stele Diamond tablet in surprise. "Goodness, Mr. Nemo," she cried, "you startled me."

Ansem frowned slightly. "Marley, how many times have I told you? Please, don't call me Mr. Nemo. Ansem will do just fine." He looked up the stairs. "Is Alexis here right now? I need to give him some details about the next phase of plans."

"Oh yes, the top-top-secret project," said Marley. "Don't worry, Alexis has been completely tight-lipped about the whole thing. He won't even tell me about it, he's afraid I'll go off and start gossiping to somebody or other. Not that I have anyone to gossip to, not in the suburbs." Ansem frowned again. "Oh, sorry about that. He's upstairs."

Ansem climbed the stairs to the second floor, where Alexis Terra, the big redheaded head of security at NemoConTech headquarters in Santa Marina, was busy polishing the axe-sword he kept on his wall. Ansem noted that there was only one bed in the spartan bedroom. "I see your girlfriend doesn't share a bed with you. I take it she sleeps in the master suite upstairs?"

Alexis looked up and nodded. "It's too high," he said, gesturing upwards in his typical laconic manner. Upon first meeting Alexis, it was the opinion of many that he was just your average dumb muscle, but careful observers would note that, while he was always a man of few words, he nevertheless took care to always speak in complete sentences.

"No offense, but I sometimes have to wonder what exactly she saw in you," said Ansem. "Your personalities are completely polar opposites, and you have such a crippling fear of heights that you can't go near any windows higher than, what is it, 25 feet? And here you are, engaged to be married."

Ansem wasn't known to prattle on either, but in this case it served a purpose for him to do so. He hadn't seen Alexis in over two years, even though it had been ten since he'd joined the company as a night guard trying to pay for his tuition at graduate school. And yet...Ansem was sure he'd just seen the man somewhere very recently. The usual mitigating circumstance of an identical twin was out of the question; according to Alexis' personnel file, he was an only child. He was trying to check and see if there was something different about his head of security. But no, he looked exactly the same as the last time Ansem had seen him, the day after the big gas explosion that took out half of Alexis Terra Senior's neighborhood. Maybe a little bulkier, maybe some more defined crow's feet, but otherwise...nothing.

"Do you have something?" asked Alexis.

"Yes, I do," said Ansem, handing Alexis a sheaf of papers from inside his coat. "Better read up on these plan updates. Your assistance will be needed this week."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Alexis took the sheaf of papers from Ansem's hands and started rifling through it very quickly. Within a minute, he had read the whole thing, which outlined in surprisingly exhaustive detail the plan for what he had to do this week. He handed the file back to Ansem, after having finished committing it all to memory.

Ansem took back the papers and smiled genially to Alexis. "Do you wish to demonstrate the tools you need? To make sure they work, you know?"

Alexis chewed his tongue for a second, frowned, and shook his head. "No. It takes too long to charge."

Ansem smacked his head in the typical "facepalm" gesture. Like other such teenage-type idiosyncrasies, this was purely done to show that he was still his usual friendly self. "Oh, of course. So sorry, my mistake. I forgot how sensitive these devices can be."

"You should know," said Alexis. "You designed them yourself."

Ansem did yet another facepalm. "Oh yes, how silly of me. I'm sorry, really sorry." He smiled again, bigger this time, seeming almost obsequious. In other words, completely unlike himself. Alexis couldn't fail to notice this, and he frowned as he thought about it, the suspicions filling his mind.

"Is something wrong, Ansem?" he asked. "You're never this friendly."

"What? No!" Ansem tittered slightly, even sounding a bit nervous. _Got something important to hide?_ Alexis thought.

"Ansem?"

Ansem sighed. "Fine, I'll talk. I'm just a bit...preoccupied. For some reason, I just get the feeling one of the inner circle is a traitor."

"Again?" asked Alexis. "Like Ray?"

"Ray," said Ansem shortly, "yes, Ray. A mistake if ever there was one, I'll be the first to admit." _And Ansem is so very well-known for owning up to his mistakes_, thought Alexis sourly. "Now I've really learned my lesson. Do a more thorough background check on anyone seeking a job. Even if said job is just for being a...factotum."

"Remind me," asked Alexis, "did you find out yourself? About his betrayal?"

"Yes," said Ansem. "And very luckily I did, too. A wonderful coincidence that I found him just as he was arming the bombs."

Alexis nodded, while privately thinking that there was no way this could possibly be true. He wasn't much for coincidences, and especially not where Ansem was concerned. Too many odd happenings occurred around the big man to be overlooked as pure fate. Not for the first time, Alexis wondered to himself if Ansem was not who he said he was. _But I already know the answer to that question_, he thought to himself.

But he still had a question of his own. "Why worry about the inner circle?"

"Come again?"

"Surely the outer circle is more likely to...betray you," said Alexis.

Ansem laughed and waved his hands indifferently. "Sure, sure. That's only too likely, but who really cares? It's not like they actually have the strength or power to do anything against me. That's why I worry more about the inner circle. I can never know if you, or Braig, or even Vexen will try to usurp me. But I am very confident you wouldn't. Nobody will."

Alexis nodded again.

"Oh well," said Ansem. "Got everything?" One more nod from Alexis. "Good. I'll see you around." He left the room.

Alexis pushed his thoughts out of his mind, took his axe-sword carefully off the wall stand, removed a small bottle of metal polish from his drawer, and began applying it to the blade.

Downstairs, Marley took a quick pop out the door to water her precious roses once again.

Next door, the Claymores sat down in their living room to watch tonight's episode of _The Amazing Race._ Linda expressed pity for the poor people of that night's featured country of Bangladesh, while Saix, as usual, pretended to be infuriated that they weren't going to the French Riviera where he'd been born and bred.

Lara Savage had just finished wrapping her finger up, only to realize that her husband had tricked her once again into believing she had grievously injured herself. Angered beyond belief, she stormed upstairs, pulled the headphones off Enzo's ears, and began whacking him upside the head with them, yelling that she'd told him half a hundred times not to use his illusionist's ability on her this way.

Tim gave in to Axel's requests (although he would have preferred the term "demands") and sat down to watch _The Walking Dead_ with him. He relented only because he had previously arranged to spend the next Saturday having a _Dexter_ marathon with Ashley so she could catch up - she enjoyed the show but unfortunately didn't get Showtime.

Meanwhile, Rocky finished his _Victorious_ and crept back into his brothers' room to leave Axel's laptop where he'd found it. _No harm, no foul,_ he thought. _Nobody will be any the wiser, especially not Axel_. _Damn, but the things he looks up. I got some choice words for you, big brother - clear your freaking browser history once in a while!_ He practiced turning the lights on using his newly acquired powers, then practiced the other newly acquired power he'd discovered just the other day - the ability to turn his house key into a large, sword-like weapon just by picking it up and imagining it so.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

-October 22-

Monday morning, 7am. Tim was glad he didn't have to wake up super-early anymore and go play music for the Green Club, so he was able to catch up on some of the sleep hours he'd lost last week, before going out the door and across the street to Ojo de Cielo High. He entered the vast central room and was instantly greeted by a huge sign:

STATEWIDE SHAKE-OUT THIS WEDNESDAY, 10:30 AM!

Ashley scooted on up to Tim and chuckled. "Yeah, a perfect excuse for us to get out of our free education for maybe five minutes in third period."

"Tell me about it," said Tim, kissing Ashley on the cheek.

"Maybe we could play a little prank on somebody during that time," said Ashley. "They usually turn the lights out for this thing, ya know."

"Somebody?" Tim scoffed. "Why not the whole class? Set your sights a little higher, Ashley. We could scare the hell out of a whole bunch of people at once."

Ashley smiled. "Sounds like fun."

"Sounds like a date," countered Tim.

"Watch it there, frisky boy," said Ashley, punching Tim playfully. At this point something else caught their eyes. "Oh look," she said, "Necker's little Glee Club is mourning his...departure." Sure enough, they were. All twenty members of the Glee Club were gathered outside Necker's classroom, sobbing quietly into each other's shoulders and shooting death glares at Tim and Ashley as they passed. The glares said, "We know you did this. You deprived us of our livelihoods. We won't do anything about it, but we will try to guilt you forever. Haters."

_Well, us haters will hate_, said Tim in his own meaningful look back at the crying teens. _Seriously, nobody likes you. You annoy the hell out of everyone and you just don't care about it. Get off the freaking bandwagon and maybe you won't turn people away anymore._ _Creeps._

_Music elitists,_ shot another death glare.

_Slimeballs_, Tim thought back. It was like trying to get the last word in, but in some sort of telepathic way. He and Ashley turned the corner, but Tim popped his head back around just long enough to raise his middle finger in their general direction, cuing ever louder sobs from down the hall.

As soon as they were out of earshot from the "mourners," Tim and Ashley started to positively laugh their heads off. "Wow," said Tim, "you'd think the guy was dead and not just fired."

"I know, right?" laughed Ashley. "It's like how on reality shows, the big guy in the alliance is gone, and everyone starts acting all funeral-y and...stuff. Yeah, did you ever see _Big Brother 11?_ That was just a truly epic example. One of the 'mourners,' 'funeral-goers,' what have you, anyway, she ended up being expelled because she started breaking shit up, badmouthing the producers, and doing pretty much every possible self-destructive thing you could think of."

"I remember that," said Tim. "Talk about a double header. Two unlikeable houseguests down in less than a week. You have no idea how happy I was to see them go."

"Oh yeah, I think I do."

Tim paused for a second. "You know what else that reminded me of?"

"Don't tell me," said Ashley. "The collective nervous breakdown of the Glee Club on _Community?_"

"Exactly," said Tim. "That's how them Glee Clubbers ought to be punished. Using their tolerant facade to justify being insulting to others. And using their club as an excuse to butcher the best songs ever made into amateurish messes. Poor Tara. But I betcha she must be so happy right about now."

Down the hall, a loud squeal of delighted laughter echoed across from where the Glee Clubbers were gathered. _A bit unlike her,_ thought Tim, _but she really need__s a chance to enjoy herself._They started sobbing even harder, and Tim and Ashley could definitely hear the sound of something smacking into a human face. Something rubbery, possibly wet, from the sound of it. This was followed by Tara walking down the hall towards Tim and Ashley, holding a piece of some kind of jelly-type plaything in her hands, like the icky Splat toys Tim and Axel used to throw at each other when they were eight years old or so, with a pale red welt on her face vaguely shaped like said jelly thing.

"Oh no," said Ashley sadly, or at least fake-sadly, because she could see Tara wasn't actually hurt. "What did they do to you?"

Tara sighed contentedly. "Oh, it was totally worth it to shove it into those asshats' faces. Now they know how it feels for the rest of us to be subjected to so-called "roasts" in bad taste." She turned back towards the place she'd just come from and cried at the top of her lungs, "HAPPY MONDAY, YOU ASSHATS! HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW, HUH?"

Tim and Ashley's English teacher walked by at this very moment, and surprisingly, she applauded politely for Tara. "Way to go, Willows," she said happily. "Stick up for yourself to those...what did you call 'em? Assbutts? Whatever, they deserve worse anyway. Just don't let their crocodile tears tell you what to do!" She disappeared into the classroom, at which point the bell rang and they all broke off to go to class.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Monday night, 7pm. Alexis Terra opened the hidden panel at the back of the broom closet in the kitchen of his townhouse, and descended the hidden stairs behind them. Two flights down, he found himself in a small, square room with torchlight and earthen walls, like a medieval dungeon. _Just as Ansem promised,_ he thought. _How much would I be willing to bet that this room doesn't show up on the blueprints in City Hall?_

He hefted the heavy axe-sword in both hands and rubbed the blade, shiny after its polishing the previous night, against the rough walls. The sharp side of the blade caught the light from the torches, reflecting it into Alexis' eyes. _If I had glasses_, he thought, _I would look like such a sinister movie villain right about now_. He rubbed the blade on the wall again, then took it away.

Seconds later, he pressed the sharp side into the earth, and waited. But nothing happened. He pressed the blade into the wall a bit deeper, and this time it started vibrating very slightly. Dirt shook off the walls and ceiling, forcing Alexis to cover his nose and mouth with one hand. Unfortunately, as big and beefy as his biceps were, his other hand nevertheless couldn't amass the strength to hold the axe-sword by itself for more than ten seconds. So he pulled it out and laid it on the ground.

_Ugh, that tastes awful_, he thought, spitting dusty disturbed soil onto the floor. _I hope Ansem isn't trying to put me on some kind of suicide mission or something_. He was pretty sure that Ansem was not able to hear a person's thoughts, but in any case he still tried to beam some in the general direction of his boss. _I'm not a traitor, Ansem. I hope you're not trying to kill me here. You'd lose a very valuable team member and you'd never get it back. Your plans would be completely scrapped. And then where would you be?_

He frowned, and then drove the blade slightly deeper into the wall than before. This time, the whole room rumbled slightly, like a subway train was passing by below. More soil drifted down to the floor around him, and Alexis grimaced. _If only we could have set up shop under a vineyard or something_, he thought. _Someplace w__here the earth doesn't taste like cancerous clay dust._ Otherwise satisfied with the result, Alexis removed the blade, opened the door, and climbed back up the stairs to his room, where he once again set himself to work polishing the axe-sword's blade. _If it's not perfectly shiny, it won't work_, he reminded himself, remembering the little footnote on one of the pages Ansem had given him that had stated exactly this in bright red, caps-locked letters for emphasis.

* * *

At the exact moment that Alexis had tested his axe-sword, Tim had been sitting on his bed, jamming on his electric violin (an instrument whose sound he enjoyed even more than that of the guitar he'd used for so long) when he felt a slight rumble emanating from the ground. _Earthquake?_ he thought nervously. But the shaking passed within only about three seconds.

_Oh well,_ thought Tim. _Just a minor micro-thing. We get those every day, nothing to worry about._ Suddenly another thought entered his head. Turning to Axel, he asked, "Dude, can you imagine if we were doing the big earthquake drill on Wednesday and there was an actual earthquake?"

Axel looked at him with a bizarre expression. "What are you talking about? There's not gonna be an earthquake for real, ya know. You still afraid that the nursery stories are true, brother? You need your blankie and binky, ya little baby?"

Tim sighed. "Forget I asked." _Great, now he's treating me like a baby. I don't know which is worse, this or teasing me about Buffy_. He resumed his violin playing, a little morosely, enough to convince himself to change to an acoustic violin and start playing in a minor key. But then the name "Buffy" re-entered his brain, and he segued almost seamlessly into a rousing rendition of the show's theme song.

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, Alexis returned to the dungeon and plunged the first three inches of the axe-sword blade into the floor, instead of the wall. This time, the rumble was considerably diminished, as if there were some kind of metal shielding blocking it. _There probably is_, he thought sourly. _Base isolation or whatever. Oh well_, he told himself.

This time, nobody picked up on any vibrations coming from below the ground. No official government seismographs, no junior rock musicians, nobody.

He went back upstairs and sent a text message to Ansem: "The wall was more effective."

A response, thirty seconds later: "As I expected. Remember, no more than nine inches in. We don't want to kill anyone, but we don't want people not to notice, either."

"It will be done," Alexis sent back. _If I die trying_, he added to himself, putting his cell phone down as he polished the blade on his weapon again. _Note to self: Buy more polish ASAP_, he thought, as he realized he was running dangerously low. He would definitely need more of it in the weeks ahead, once the In-Between was opened. _And once Ansem gets his chance to unleash holy hell on everything,_ Alexis thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

-October 24-

Wednesday morning, 10am. Marley was already gone, off to the city to reunite with her hen-like gossip partners. Alexis, meanwhile, was removing the big shiny axe-sword from his bedroom wall, lugging it slowly down the stairs so he could use it in the little earth-walled dungeon room, in earnest this time as he finally set out to do what Ansem had told him to do.

He opened the hidden door in the back of the closet, and walked down the stairs to the dungeon. He opened his cell phone and was about to send a text to Ansem, to let him know he was in position, when he remembered that he was deep underground and therefore would get zero reception. But at least he was able to check the time on the otherwise useless phone's screen. 10:05. Twenty-five minutes to go and then he would be able to do his assigned task.

For some reason, he found himself extremely tired at that moment. _I really should have gotten more sleep last night_, he thought ruefully. His eyes closed and he started drifting off to sleep...

* * *

At 10:29am, Tim and Ashley locked eyes as the annoying fire alarm blared across the room once, signaling the start of the Statewide Shake-Out. The lights went out, and everybody dropped under their desks.

Ashley and Tim had decided not to pull a real major prank while the earthquake drill was going on, but they nevertheless got a few minor tricks in during the time of lights out. Seconds after the room went dark, Tim made a small squeak-like noise and yelled, "Who pinched my ass?" Ashley responded with a squeak-like noise of her own and a yell of "Who squeezed my tit?" The teacher was laughing herself silly at the (relatively juvenile) joke, but she was hardly the only one - everyone who heard this exchange seemed to come down with a conveniently-timed simultaneous fit of the giggles.

Tim checked his light-up dial on his watch. 10:33. Only two more minutes of uncomfortable contortion to go...

* * *

Alexis shuddered awake as he realized, in a panic, he'd almost overslept his chance. _Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!_ he thought angrily, not even bothering to check the time on his cell phone as he furiously plunged the axe-sword into the earthen wall. The shaking was immediate, a tremor not felt by anyone in this area in over twenty years, rocking everything back and forth like a cruise liner being tossed around by Superstorm Sandy.

Safe as long as he gripped his axe-sword, Alexis held on tightly until he remembered something else. _No more than nine inches_, Ansem had said. Alexis looked down at the blade. _Oh no, how deep am I putting this thing?_ he thought, realizing that it had to be something way above the nine-inch limit. He instantly pulled it out of the wall and collapsed to the floor, the axe-sword lying across his lap, coated in dirt.

_Oh shit oh shit oh shit_, Alexis repeated in his head. _Oh shit. If I killed anybody with this...oh dear God, help me..._

* * *

Tim had never experienced an earthquake before. Not one of this magnitude, anyway. Nevertheless, he counted himself very lucky that it had happened right during the Statewide Shake-Out. _Lucky?_ he asked himself. _Hell of a coincidence. Too much of one. I wonder, is God trying to play some trick on us? That wouldn't be very likely, I don't think. But still..._

As soon as the shaking stopped, he and Ashley and everyone else clambered out from underneath their desks and quickly turned on the lights to survey the damage. A number of foam ceiling tiles had fallen, exposing the ducts and insulation above, but otherwise nothing seemed too broken.

Not in the classroom.

But even over the sound of earth moving and everyone's terrified screams, there was no blocking out the sound of concrete breaking in the big central room. Tim remembered that the heavy roof in that room was supported by six big pillars, pillars that didn't look like they'd survive a major quake intact.

Disregarding the teacher's request to stay in the room, Tim and a number of his classmates tore out into the hallway and up towards the center of the building. A small crowd was gathered right at the entrance to the central room, and when Tim reached the spot, he realized why they wouldn't enter the room.

A large part of the floor had collapsed, right at the entrance, and settled about six feet below the surface. Part of one of the pillars had gone down with it, and the top half of said pillar was dangling dangerously overhead, looking ready to break off at any moment and take the whole roof down all at once. Broken water pipes were dripping their contents onto the cracked linoleum at the bottom of the pit. Presumably the water had already been shut off, in a surprising aversion of the usual notorious inefficiency of municipal public works.

And yet, the pit was still filling with water, very slowly, but still noticeably.

Ashley walked up to Tim and took a look at the pit. She frowned and said, "Where's the water coming from if the pipes are off?"

"I have no idea," said Tim. "Unless..."

Ashley nodded as the same idea entered her head. "The springs. The water's finally found an outlet. Right in the middle of the school."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Tim and Ashley looked away from the deep pit of water and linoleum and instead looked across it, towards their lockers. The lockers were completely intact, luckily, but they would be forced to go around the pit in order to reach them. Which they did, because they both decided that, just in case they closed the school, they should go empty out their lockers. Of course, they weren't the only ones. It felt as if sixty percent or more of Ojo de Cielo's two thousand students were rushing to their lockers to grab their stuff and split.

As Tim emptied the meager contents of his locker into his backpack (thus expanding it so that it was almost twice as thick as he was, and putting significant strain on his back), Ashley stopped what she was doing and looked back at the pit, a concerned expression forming on her face.

Tim closed his backpack and asked, "What's up, Ashley? Whatcha looking at?"

Ashley pointed at the rows of lockers attached to the wall, over a narrow strip of floor only about six inches wide, which then had a sheer drop-off straight into the pit. Nobody could possibly walk on this ledge safely, unless they had some kind of anti-gravity ability to support themselves and prevent themselves from falling into the pit. Tim realized that there was no way the students who used those lockers would be able to get their stuff.

"Tara and Bobby," Ashley said sadly. "Their lockers are right there. Their stuff's gonna be stuck until they fix that hole. And who knows how long that's gonna take?"

Tim nodded, all the while pondering something. _Hmm, if I could control the water well enough to get across the pit...But when would I get time to do that?_

"Timmy!" He turned towards the sound of his name, and saw Rocky rushing towards him from his algebra class on the other side of the school. He hugged his little brother, briefly but tightly, and assured him he was fine, no scratches or injuries. "Hey, go get your stuff, dude," he said. "Somehow I get the feeling school's out for the day. Maybe the week, too, if we're lucky."

Rocky gazed wistfully at the row of lockers perched precariously over the pit. "Uh, okay," he said, "except I kinda left my suction-cup shoes in there."

"Oh," said Tim, comprehension dawning in his mind. He looked quickly across the room and saw Axel's distinctive dyed-red spikes bobbing around as he cleared out his own locker. "Okay, we're all gonna go home, I guess. Sorry about your locker, dude. Maybe they'll get that hole fixed up over the weekend." He turned to Ashley, said goodbye, and the two brothers turned and walked out of the building. Tim took one more look at the pit before leaving, and saw that there was at least one more inch of water that had built up in the last five minutes. _Maybe by tonight, it'll be full enought that I could use my ability safely_, he thought.

* * *

Alexis sat in a kitchen chair, phoned Marley to make sure she was okay (and of course she was, it wasn't as if there were any old adobe mission-type buildings to collapse onto Yerba Buena Park, she and her girls were all okay, and they were heading home right away as soon as BART resumed transbay service.) He then texted Ansem to ask if the experiment was a success, and Ansem's response was a simple "Yes. Plans for Nov. 27 still online. I will keep you apprised of any changes."

But then when Alexis turned the TV on to see reports on the quake (now being classified as a magnitude 7.2, just about as big as Loma Prieta), he saw something that truly chilled his bones.

A massive freeway interchange in Santa Marina - exactly the kind of multi-level monstrosity that somehow got erected in the geologically unstable land known as California - had completely collapsed as a result of the quake. Seventy people were believed dead or severely injured, with three deaths already confirmed and emergency services lining them up in body bags on the rubble-strewn freeway.

Alexis started sobbing quietly in his seat. _I did that,_ he thought numbly. _Ansem told me to cause an earthquake, and I just followed his orders. Now I've probably killed seventy people in Santa Marina. God knows how many more lives I've taken by proxy today. And no doubt, Ansem doesn't care. As much as he said not to kill anybody, he doesn't give a fuck. Not about anyone but himself. Ansem, you bastard...why did you make me do this?_

He staggered out of his seat, into the living room, then collapsed onto his knees, weeping shamelessly. _I did that,_ he thought again. "I did that!" he cried, out loud this time. "Oh, God. God...please...forgive me. Please...have mercy on my soul," he sobbed while looking skyward, before prostrating himself to the floor and continuing to cry.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

While Tim and Rocky walked across the street and back into the house, Tim outlined the plan he had in mind to his little brother. "I know you need your stuff with you, and I'm pretty sure I could use my water ability to cross the pit safely and get your stuff back."

"But all you can do is make a water-clone of yourself," said Rocky. "What good will that do?"

"Who says I can't walk on water?"

Rocky shook his head. "I don't know. _Can_ you walk on water?"

"I haven't done it before," said Tim, "but a month ago I could also say I'd never made a waterbending clone either."

"Even if you could do it," asked Rocky, "I don't get the feeling your waterbending would get you through the door."

"How about if we get Xion's dad to let us in again?"

Rocky shook his head again. "I don't think so. But...I think I might know another way in."

"Really?" asked Tim. "How?"

Rocky looked around, as if he was a spy about to impart some precious eyes-only state secret. "Not now. Tonight. Six o'clock. We'll get into the school with no trouble at all. Just trust me."

* * *

Alexis got back to his feet and climbed up the stairs to Marley's room, where behind the back wall of the closet lay a hidden elevator just like the one in Vexen and Ansem's room. Like that elevator, this one led straight down to the underground lab. Alexis opened the elevator doors, pressed the button, and rode it down deep into the ground.

As the door opened, Ansem looked around in shock. "Alexis. Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Alexis looked up, blinked in the harsh fluorescent light, and said, quietly, "I killed people. More than I would have thought possible."

Ansem sighed. "Yes, I heard about the freeway collapse in Santa Marina. Seventy dead, was it? Regrettable, but apparently it was unavoidable."

"Wait," said Alexis. He was struggling to process the callous remarks Ansem had just made. "Unavoidable? I put the blade into the wall too deeply. I made a bigger earthquake than you asked for, and people are dead now. I failed to follow your orders."

"Well, this is precisely why I said no deaths," said Ansem. "I don't exactly think my people should make time for regrets. Of course, this test was the most unpredictable one of them all. Deaths were almost certainly going to occur because of this, Alexis. Just remember, you won't have to cause any more after today. That'll be my job." He sighed again. "I won't punish you for this, if that's what you're here for. You're too valuable for that. Just sit tight for the next few weeks, and don't let it disturb you too much."

Alexis gaped at his superior. "That's it? I commit mass murder and you're just going to let that go? Nobody's that merciful, nobody. Except God."

Ansem tapped his cheekbone. "Exactly," he said. "Remember, my dear friend, always have faith." He turned back to his computer screen, leaving Alexis to take the elevator back to his home. As he rode the little square pod up to the surface, he thought, _So Ansem fancies himself a little game of playing God. We'll just see who's merciful in the end._

* * *

At six o'clock, Tim joined Rocky in the living room and together they made their way across the street. The latter was holding his house key in his hands, twirling it carefully between his fingers. _No wonder he's always losing that thing_, Tim thought. _He should just keep it in his pocket where it belongs._

But Tim was about to see that there was a reason why Rocky wouldn't just put down his key. "Your guitar's not the only thing that can change shape in our house," said Rocky proudly. He gripped the key handle in his right hand, and the end of the key in his left, then turned both hands in opposite directions. Instantly, the key turned into the handle of a much bigger key, one which looked old-fashioned but with an absurdly sharp business end.

"I call it a 'keyblade,'" said Rocky to his awed big brother. "Watch what it does," he said, hefting the keyblade in both hands and running the sharp end down the center of the school's front gate. As soon as it hit the lock, the gate popped open slightly, and Rocky pulled it open, gestured to Tim to follow him, and entered the darkened school.

_What the hell?_ Tim thought. _Wow. Things really are getting weirder every day._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Rocky led Tim past the office to the front door of the school, then he ran the end of his keyblade down the center of the door until it hit the lock and popped it open. Inside, the school was eerily dark, because apparently nobody was there to turn the lights on. Either that, or the power had gone out. Tim confirmed the latter by fiddling with a nearby light switch and getting zero response for his trouble. Rocky then relaxed his grip on the keyblade, which shrank back to its regular size so he could pocket it, then he raised his left hand into the air so he could light the way. White light shone over everything, illuminating almost the entire room and leaving intensely dark shadows on every wall. If Tim closed his eyes, he could almost barely convince himself it was broad daylight, even though the sun had already sunk so low it no longer shone through the western window.

Tim walked up to the pit, which was now about eighty percent full of rising spring water. "Hand me the key," he told his brother.

"Wait," said Rocky. "Let's make sure you can actually walk on the water first. I don't want you dropping the key into the water, we'd never get it back if you did."

Tim nodded his agreement, took a deep breath, and tentatively extended his leg over the pit. He imagined the water supporting his weight like the tile floor in the house's foyer, then placed his foot on the surface.

Unbelievably, his foot just rested there, as if the water was solid. He tried the same thing with his other foot, and it was again a success. Then he took a few careful steps across the water, never once slipping or falling in.

"Okay," said Rocky. "Maybe when we get home we'll have you try turning water to wine...or was it wine to water?"

"Water to wine, I think," said Tim. "It's been a while since I've seen _The Da Vinci Code._"

"Ooh," said Rocky in a pseudo-cryptic, highly mysterious voice. "So dark the con of man..."

"Enough. I don't wanna fall in here now." Tim took the key and crossed to the other side of the pit. Rocky directed him to his locker, and then Tim attempted to twist the key into its keyblade form just the way his brother had done. For some reason, though, it stubbornly refused to respond to his attempts to change its shape.

"Maybe it only works for me or something like that," said Rocky, noticing Tim's inability to make the keyblade. "Do you think you can walk me across the water?"

Tim put his hand behind his ear and said, "Okay, let me think about this...all right, go ahead."

Rocky went ahead, and unbelievably, his feet didn't sink through the surface of the water, either. Unable to resist, he cried, "Wahoo!" and started jumping around all over the place.

Tim yelled, "Hey, stop that! This only works if I can focus on where your feet are, and if you keep moving around like that I won't be able to focus and you'll get soaked!"

Rocky stopped, balancing comically on one foot, then placing his other one down and walking very slowly across the water. Once he was next to Tim, he took his key back, changed it to full size, and keybladed his locker open.

"Dude, why'd you just keyblade your own locker?" Tim had to ask.

"'Cause I'll never get another chance to do that," said Rocky. "It's something too cool to miss out on."

Tim was about to start walking back across the water when an idea popped into his head. "Hey, Rocky, do ya think we could, uh, keyblade the other lockers open? Get everyone else's stuff out so they can all pick it up tomorrow?"

"Are you saying you want me to use my powers for good?" Rocky pretended to whine. "Okay, fine, but only this once." He ran his keyblade up and down the entire row of lockers, and Tim carefully carried all the contents of each one to the edge of the pit. Once they were done, they walked back to terra firma, and moved all the other students' things to the front of the school. "So they can all pick it up tomorrow," Tim repeated.

Rocky smirked. "We will never speak of this to anyone."

"My lips are sealed," said Tim dramatically. Rocky extinguished the light in his hands, and the two of them left the building, Rocky running the keyblade _up_ the front of the doors so he could lock them again.

The two boys crossed the street, entered the house, and went upstairs to their bedrooms. Axel looked up briefly as Tim entered his room, then turned his attention back to his laptop. Incredible as it seemed, Axel actually appeared to be doing homework; he had two of his textbooks splayed across his lap in front of the laptop. _How typical, he only does his homework when class is unexpectedly canceled_, Tim thought sourly.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Wednesday night, 10pm. Alexis Terra turned to Marley and sighed heavily. "Oh baby, it's not your fault," said Marley, holding Alexis' hand comfortingly. "You couldn't have known. No way."

"I should have known," Alexis said, for what was perhaps the tenth time that day.

Marley let go of his hand, and walked up the stairs to her room. She opened her drawer, grabbed a pair of leather wallets, then removed the two suits she kept in the closet. She then went downstairs to the living room and handed one of each to Alexis. He looked up, comprehension dawning on his face as he did so.

"So are we -"

"Yeah," said Marley. "We're going down to the city again. You got the folders and files?"

Alexis paused for a second. "They're in the trunk."

Marley smiled. "Good, everything's ready, then," she said. She opened the door to the garage and said, "After you then, _Detective Gilmour_."

Alexis, having just put on his suit, nodded to Marley, who had removed the pink wig she wore at all times to reveal the short brunette bob underneath. "Thank you very much, _Detective Barrett_." He smiled as he got into the driver's seat of the black Cadillac - which sat right next to the horrifically-shaded pink convertible he and Marley had arrived in town in - and drove it out into the alley behind the townhouse.

As he drove, Marley placed a call to Enzo Lessico. "You know what to do, Six," she said. "Don't let him see us - or, rather, not see us."

"Of course," said Enzo on the other end of the line. He hung up his phone and then turned to Ansem, who was seated right next to him. "Well, looks like they intend to try and arrest you again, Superior."

Ansem looked back at Enzo and smiled. "The fools. And this is why you took the job with me, remember? To get away from your family who had zero idea of your true potential. Speaking of which, are you prepared for tomorrow?"

"Yes," said Enzo. "Everything is in order. Somebody's gonna wake up to a surprise tomorrow morning."

"A non-lethal one, I trust?" asked Ansem. "Our traitorous Number Five was having serious second thoughts after he learned he killed seventy people by accident today."

"Well, if they have a good sense of balance..." Enzo's voice trailed off slightly, but then he spoke up again. "No fatalities tomorrow. None whatsoever."

"I would hope not," said Ansem. "Can't afford to kill off any of our fourteen before their time."

"Fourteen?" Enzo was confused. "I thought the plans called for thirteen."

"I made an alternate version of Serum Thirteen in secret," explained Ansem, "because - and I haven't told anyone but Two and Four about this yet - but in order to open the In-Between, I'll need two types of energy. Serum Fourteen provides the counterpoint to Thirteen, the polarity required to complete the plan."

Enzo nodded. "Yes, I see. Light and dark. Yin and yang. I get it."

Ansem smiled. "Good. Remember, be ready tomorrow. I'm going to need you to pull double duty."

Enzo entered the elevator back to his townhouse. "I'll start the first of my duties within the next ten minutes," he said.

"Good man," Ansem said approvingly, as the doors closed, sealing Enzo inside the elevator for the ride to the surface.


End file.
